Cable/Satellite TV
 

How many of you subscribe to it ?
If so, what channels do you watch?

I've had it since it was in it's early days here, 1995 I think it was. The point of my asking is that my signal just went out and I go nuts when that happens, yet half the time I wonder why on earth I have it, I can't live without it but it angers me also :confused::confused::confused:

I've got Foxtel, all channels, yet only watch about a dozen of the 60 + of them :confused:

Am I weird or are others of ya the same ?

I share a house with a married couple, and we have two Sky boxes, although one's a Sky Plus one (means they can record stuff on it). I rarely watch TV to be honest, sometimes it's on in the background, and I'll tend to have it on when eating meals. They watch it all the time, especially the bloke, but he's partially disabled so it's difficult for him to do much else at home.

I couldn't watch that much TV, it would drive me bonkers. There is just so much utter shite out there. We subscribe to pretty much all the major channels - sport, educational (hah! you gotta be kidding calling it that when most of it is sensationalist claptrap), movies.

To be honest it's a waste of money for me to have it, but I guess they get their money's worth.

My Dad has just upgraded to SKY+HD but the package we had before carries on which includes the films and sky sports channels but not ESPN-he had Setanta once but then they went belly-up two years ago. A lot of the channels are a waste of time but I personally watch DAVE a lot and G.O.L.D when they show old comedy shows like 'The Young Ones' , 'Blackadder' and 'Game On'-sport some football, mostly Liverpool games and some England games-Sky Premiere when they have films worth recording to watch another time(SKY+ allows you to record series so once it's set up it will record the same day, same time etc and you can go back and forth like a video recorder). The biggest plus of SKY+ is being able to pause live television-when the phone goes or someone turns up, and then you can catch up by rewinding and watching-clever stuff.

I have DirecTV and have over 100 channels but I only watch maybe 20 of them on a regular basis. And about the only things I watch from broadcast TV is football and Family Guy.

I have Sky and I also subscribe to Premier sports so I can watch the NASCAR sprint cup races without having to find a kind American streaming it (still have to do that for the Nationwide and trucks as no-one broadcasts them in the UK)

The signal only goes out in heavy rain I find. I do watch it quite a bit, also enjoy the cricket and speedway plus a variety of other motor racing.

We have a Sky+ box,I mainly watch Sky 1and 2 for The Simpsons and Futurama,Occasionally a movie on one of the movie channels,Some of the documentary channels and odd things that crop on the minor channels.I also watch FX for Family Guy and The Walking Dead. My wife watches US crime dramas on Living, Alibi and Five US.

I remember when I 1st got satellite TV, I took long service leave and watched the TV for 3 weeks straight, only left the house to buy food, snacks, beer and smokes which were kind of essential for the new found addiction.

After a while, I became selective of what I watch, back then we only had 17 channels, but now with Christ knows how many, I'm down to these channels

The History Channel
National Geographic
Discovery Channel
The Comedy Channel
Fox News
BBC World
Sky News
TV1........which is old classic TV shows
CNN
BBC Knowledge
The Weather Channel

And apart from the odd movie and sporting event, the rest of the stuff is useless

Oh, dont mind the music channels in the background once in a while, Music Max and Country Music

I pity the fool (yeah I was actually doing the Mr T voice then) that pays for SkyTV now. Channels full of shite repeats etc etc, for £45 per month.

Digital is bad enough, but Sky is a joke now.

I actually have sky tv on my system, and I have it mainly for the sport. I like to watch the speedway, bike racing, rugby league, union big games and the football, especially the super sunday derbies and so forth.
I prefer to watch the news because it is uninterrupted on bbc. I like some of the music channels, but they've gone down the pan lately. And some of the documentary channels put out a decent program from time to time.
The other channels are just full of adverts and repeats with only one decent program per week on sky one worth watching. (Spartacus, blood and sand and gods of the arena.) The majority of it is garbage, and it should be renamed repeat tv.
However, I hope that when the second round of switch off takes place, I don't get break up on my screen which, as I've had my system checked, is apparently down to this weather and the heavy thunderstorms. While I understand it can have an effect on a transmission, especially a live one, I also become extemely annoyed when I lose the picture temporararily.
I don't like having to ring sky up as they usually tell me there is nothing they can do and the signal is ok. So I start to rant and tell them I'm paying for something I can't even look at sometimes.
I remember staying at a friends house, he lived in the Hague in Holland. And he didn't get sky, but all the channels he could get on his satellite was what people normally got in that part of the world. It was a mix of Dutch, German and English (bbc) channels. I asked him if he paid for any of these channels, he said no. I asked him do you pay a licence of any kind? He said no. That just about puts everything into perspective over here.

I have cable tv for which I pay about $90.00 per month. I have what they call an "extended" package which gives me the basic cable, a group of additional channels, and the ability to buy a "sports" package (which I do). The basic package gives me my local stations without having to use an antenna along with the standard channels (ESPN, Disney, TNT, TBS, etc,...). the extended package gives me the Military Channel, BBC News, CNN International, and quite a few others. The sports package gives me about a dozen sports channels, mostly ESPN based, along with Fox Soccer Channel, and GolTV. The last two get quite a bit of viewing along with the basic ESPN and ESPN2 which come with basic cable.

I have 200 or so channels (I haven't counted them) but watch very few of them. the main reason I have them is because I have no other choice. I don't watch MTV, VH1, Disney, Nick, and a host of others. In the mornings and before I go to bed at night I watch my local news. Mainly for traffic, weather, and such. At other times I will usually catch CNN International or BBC News. Other than this and football matchs, I watch about 10 hours a week unless there is something special running.

One good thing my cable does offer me is bunch of music channels. These aren't video music channels, but just CD quality music being broadcast over the cable. I can pick from a lot of different music and I can route it through my stereo for good quality sound. I tend to have this on whenever I am cooking, reading, or working at home.

I used to thoroughly enjoy the History and Discovery channels, but nowadays they're just full of programs that favour style over substance. It's about being "exciting" rather than informative, "thrilling" rather than interesting.

Couple that with the constant repeats, it get's very old, very quickly.

I subscribe to Sly TV purely for the boxing....if they dropped the boxing I would stop subscribing straight away. I also have a separate big motorised dish set up which can pick up lots of ahem European channels ;)

anyone got smutty satellite channels ? :D

I don't subscribe, most of the stuff I would watch, I download before it even gets to the UK

My parent´s subscribed a total cable(premium package+exclusive chanels such fish & hunt channel, more than 100) package when I was a teen, that I subscribed when I flew out the family nest, but in last year I have to cut some chanels (you know the economy). I still watching the same chanels, (now with arround 45), mainly tv series and movies chanels: TNT, Fox, MGM...and less time Sports (75% basketball), discovery and other documentary channels. (I likr shows such "how do they do it?")
The only advantage of this pay chanels....I watched weeks before public channels aired foreing shows.In some case days after the show is premiered in the US like walking dead or fallin skies,that are use to aired the same week.

Recently, my cable carrier raised their service to $100. This is for their middle of the road service. Tons of channels many; I do not want, but have to pays so I can get like BBC-West.

So I checked into the Google system where you use the Internet as your carrier... there are some loss, but I don't mind getting a show a few days later... But 90% of the channels I view are open to view on the Google system. And with Net-flicks I get it all.

So for my cost of Internet, I get surfing and TV. And $7 for Net-flicks.

I have virgin media cable. They supply my TV (all channels except sports) broadband 50mb:rolleyes: and landline. I tend to watch the history channel a lot. The HD channels are good.

Ive had cable and satellite. I used to have dish network and the programming was better but during the winter the signal always went out because of the snow. I have never had any problems like that with cable. Cable is also less expensive from my experience.

I have Virginmedia cable and my package means I get Sky Sports News, which is great on a Saturday afternoon for the footie scores (can't beat Jeff Stelling). :thumbsup:

I agree - too flash by half.

There's a couple of exceptions; Monsterquest wasn't too flashy, some of the UFO Files episodes were excellent and Ice Road Truckers isn't too bad at all (all on History). Sadly, most of the others tend to give me a headache. Anyway, youtube is your friend!

I have the UPC Digital TV box with and am subscribed to 120 channels but I barely watch TV. When I bought this, I was looking forward to watch these documentary channels like the Discovery Channel, History, National Geographic, Planet, Animal Planet or the Biography Channel until I realized that most of them blow, especially the "History" channel with its sensationalistic topics. As for sports channels, I got Eurosport in different languages, Sport 1 (German; previously known as DSF), ESPN America, ESPN Classic, Extreme Sports, DMAX and Auto Motor und Sport (German channel). These sports channels are a waste of time but I watch the NHL magazine on ESPN America occassionally.
When my TV is on, it's mostly VH-1 Classic in the background. I have the Playboy channel, too, which airs at 11 p.m. and utterly sucks. Only a few of all these additional channels show good movies, like MGM or 13th Street.

I used to have analogue satellite TV back in the early 90's . I liked the German channels like RTL for the old soft porn movies. I even watched Wagner's Ring from Bayreuth [thinking it was porn] on3SAT - very impressive but not as many tits and bums as one of those Schulmadchen movies

I don't think you're weird... many people around the world have cable/satellite.

I use the internet exclusively.... many people do find that to be a bit odd, but considering the 'net has access to literally everything and anything, I have no need for regular television. Just look for it online, and you're all set.

I have a satellite service which annoys the hell out of me with the ease it loses the signal. However, I keep it for the "time-shift" feature, if I miss a show I can usually catch it on one of the western time zone channels or if I want to watch it early I get it off of one of the eastern zones. I'm getting the service package I pay for simplified because like Heehoo says, most of what I like to watch is on the net now.

"Your Dad"? Damn! I always pictured you as old as dirt, like one of the founding fathers of VEF, and your dad pays for the cable? Well, that's nice...:rolleyes:

Well anyway, I've got Comcast here in St. Augustine. My main channels are CNN, for news, first thing. Then Discovery, TLC, and National Geographic, and the Science Channel, and such as that. I love Turner Classic Movies, for old movies. Encore movie channel is good, as well as channels that carry cooking shows, like Giada, and Anthony Bourdain, and Andrew Zimmern, (sick bastard), and your what's his name blond limey chef who goes around to restaurants cussing everybody out..can't think of his name right now. :rolleyes:

Then, of course, there's the Cartoon Network, with such stellar offerings such as Squidbillies, Family Guy, Assy McGee, and Aqua Teen Hunger Force.

And then there's HBO. Realtime with Bill Maher, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Boxing After Dark, as well as good movies, and what not. (And the older series like Six Feet Under, and Deadwood). That's enough for me.

Oh yeah...Gordon Ramsay...this horse's ass...

http://i1181.photobucket.com/albums/...1/images-1.jpg

Never had cable or sky tv, not even freeview. All i have is terrestial mainly because i'm online a lot, so for me tv's been replaced by the internet.

I have cable TV and I honestly don't know how many channels are on it. :confused::o:rolleyes: I would guess around 200 or so and I watch maybe 40 of them. I get all of my TV, phone and internet through the same bundled service as they call it. No complaints so far as the internet is fast and cable reception is generally pretty good. I have maybe 50 HD channels and they make watching sports an even better thing.:thumbsup: I would guess I watch sports 75% of the time I watch TV. I also like A & E, History, Discovery, Nat Geo but I agree with those who have said that they are not as good as they once were. Also have to mention Sundance and IFC. They both run plenty of good indie films and documentaries.:thumbsup:

Now can I talk about channels I don't like? :rolleyes: First off........Lifetime Channel. I know, I know "it's the network for women for chrissakes so what the hell are you doing whatchin' it keef? Are you going weird on us or something?" Well let me explain now that you asked. :rolleyes: The lovely and charming is an addict, a Lifetime addict. I have tried to enroll her in programs but as soon as the TV clicks on she's mainlining this weeks docudrama starring Valerie Bertinelli and/or Jennie Garth straight into her eyeballs.:eek: And of course then into her elephantine like brain. I wonder how she feels about me refering to any part of her as elephantine but I digress...the point is, she has long memory. So now after watching the latest movie/docudrama/revenge fantasy/penis cutter biography she has all these ideas in her head. :eek: She is convinced by Lifetime that all men are treacherous, lying, cheating, conniving, no caring bastards. :eek: Now I try and do everything I can to change that opinion :rolleyes: but I am fighting a losing battle. This channel must be stopped or I am afraid I may wake up one day to find myself dead.:confused: Killed by a "Woman Scorned" or maybe it was "Her Final Revenge" or "Octomom: The True Story" but whatever it is, it won't be pretty. Pray for me fellow VEF'ers the "Man Bad, Woman Good" marathon starts at noon. ;):):D

My GF loves The W Channel, no it's not a channel dedicated to GW, it more a channel for the ladies, but she loves The View :( crap :mad: The only good thing about that channel is it gives me an excuse too leave the lounge room and be on VEF and complain about that channel, among other activities on here ;)

Same for me too. I dislike the fashion and bridal shows they watch... OMG can they really like hearing about the same crap over and over again!!

Man, I hate that Fashion TV channel. I'm also being annoyed by these shopping channels like QVC. So much useless crap you gotta pay for.

What pisses me off is the +1 channels. My girlfriend will watch something like 'Goks fashion fix' (or whatever shite like that) and then watch the bloody thing again on +1.:eek:

I've had sky since 1992. It was good then as there weren't many channels and whatever tv you got, crap or not, it was great to have more than the 4 terrestrial channels. It also gave us insight into what our US buddies were watching such as the quiz and game shows like Jeopardy, Jokers Wild, The Pyramid Game and so on. (I know it's sad now but this was 19 years ago!!!)

I'm now on sky+ with a basic package as I was sick of all the repeats on the movie channels. I used to watch sky sports for the footie but that was about it so I took the plunge and got rid of both. I have to say that with all these channels I am sick of repeats and can't believe that in this day and age I can flick through all the hundreds of channels and still find nothing good to watch.

I can't really say I have a favourite channel as the programmes I like are spread about on several stations. Saying that, the relatively new Sky Atlantic is pretty good showing stuff like Boardwalk Empire, Game of Thrones and last night's new starter, The Borgias.

I remember Sky way back in '91 - full of old American and Aussie programs, the cheaper the better. It's biggest selling point was they had "The Simpsons". I don't think Sky had any original programing in those days, or anything British for that matter.

Sky is owned by Murdoch, is that correct ?
I like Aussies ;):thumbsup:

They still don't have much and what they go have isn't very good.

I gave it up a long time ago. Used to have DirectTV (satellite). A friend hooked me up with a rigged box that got all the channels including all the pay channels. I just had to pay $45/month for basic. It was sweet at first but then I realized even with 400 channels to watch, there's still really isn't anything on worth watching past the first week of the month. Then my job got in the way and after awhile, I wasn't even watching it once or twice a week except for basketball, football, UFC or boxing matches. After the recession hit in '08, cable became a casualty and I dropped it. I still don't miss it. Too many reality shows. But I miss TMC, AMC, IFC and Sundance. Thank God for the internet and Netflix.

Is King Rupert actually still Australian (technically)? Last I heard he was going to be Turkish in order to acquire a satellite network in Turkey? I believe he's American as well...

Here in the UK I used to subscribe to our main one for most of their channels at SKY. They were good, had some really great stuff on, but the repeats/re-runs were incredible and there were waaay too many. Eventually I decided to stop subbing to them and now just have the standard stuff.

I also subbed to The Adult Channel and Television X for the odd month. Do not do this ever if you want value for money! You'd be better off watching an old "Carry On" movie or anything cheeky from the 70's.

I can see that nowadays though, satellite tv seems to have improved in the UK, so who knows, I may sub again in the future.

Only until I declare him not ;)

Anyway, back too TV, One thing that to an extent annoys me are the repeats, :(, but some of them I watch again and again, like Air Crash Investigation, don't know why, but I do.

But then along comes a new series that gets ya hooked, like lately, Conspiracy Theory With Jesse Ventura :eek: or the one I'm watchin' right now, Inside The Vietnam War

I used to have a 'large' cable package with 50-60 channels, but then they remixed the packages, and the mixes were so bad that not one was worth paying for

So now I just have the basic 'free' package, which still gives me everything I need, like Al Jazeera :D

(Actually, AJ is a quality news outlet. It's just that my life isn't focused on the ME)

BBC World is ok. RT is awful, because they don't give real Russian news and don't speak Russian. DW is the same, but at least they speak German half of the time. TV Monde is incomprehensible for me (mostly)

Swedish TV is... well, very boring (at least what I get) and must be only for Swedes. Finnish TV is better, because they show series etc from different languages, although many shows are very old. But Finnish news will send you to sleep

From my old cable package I miss the comedy channel CNBC (and the boobs of Caruso Carrera), and SkyNews because of the weather girl Lucy :D

I think is a normal way of work for tv operators arround the world. In Spain what pay chanels aired is the same, everything comes from overseas
Well, 80% comes from USA, a few shows from the UK and a few from Germany......Normally pay chanels aired americas top viewed shows:2 and a half man, bones, CSI, big band theory....and fill the schedule with old seasons or all shows and sports chanels could be called foatball chanels: La Liga, The premier league, Serie A, Bundesliga, Japan league, portuguese league......


I´ve always believed he was from Atlanta..............has the headquarters there, he is the owner of the Atlanta teams........but is australian

Used to have the full sky package, then realised the movies were repeated that often I would have been cheaper buying a cheap copy to watch over & over- got rid of them, watched the sports channel only for the football which meant for 2 months of the summer they were never visited-got shot of them-then the sky box packed up & sky wouldnt replace it. Best thing to happen, spent a week surfing the net & found all the free sites offering american shows, movies sports along with BBC iplayer, 5 oD...etc never looked back.
Also if your only watching catch up or downloading shows no licence required...total saving £30+ a month + £140 stealth tax a year=£500 notes in my pocket...:D